Numerous devices have been developed to monitor the activities of individuals in lieu of the growing concern of children being abducted from their parents. The need for monitoring devices, in this particular application, has arisen due to the fact that a parent cannot watch his child every minute of every day and still go about doing their daily tasks. Additionally, monitoring apparatuses have been employed to monitor the whereabouts of valuable cargo. Further, these devices have been implemented in mental and correctional institutions where the need for monitoring inmates is great due to the disproportional ratio of inmates to institutional staff members. The following U.S. Pat. Nos. disclose various devices for monitoring persons and the like: 3,336,530 Sloan et al; 3,810,146 Lieb; 4,121,160 Cataldo; 4,136,338 Antenore; 4,157,540 Oros; 4,300,129 Cataldo; 4,336,531 Kincaid; 4,399,432 Lunn; 4,593,273 Narcisse; 4,598,272 Cox. The monitoring apparatuses disclosed in the aforementioned patents fall into two general categories. The first category being devices that only transmit a signal between the monitoring and monitored units when an individual activates the device. These types of monitoring apparatuses are very limited in their applications. The second major category of monitoring apparatuses are those which provide a continuous signal between the monitored and monitoring units. These types of monitoring devices have been designed to only inform an operator that an alarm condition is present and are unable to inform the operator of the specific activities of the object which resulted in the alarm condition. By providing only a single alarm to inform the operator that a threshold condition has been exceeded, these monitoring devices do not in any way limit the possibilities which may have given rise to the alarm conditions. Therefore, the parent or operator must consider all possibilities as opposed to focusing on only a few specific possibilities. This deficiency in the known monitoring apparatuses significantly reduce the likelihood that the parent/operator will be able to locate the monitored person or thing before it is to late. Further, the continuous signal type monitoring apparatuses significantly drain the power supply of the unit sending the signal. Thus, the batteries or the like are required to be replaced frequently. Additionally, the aforementioned monitoring apparatuses are unable to readily locate the monitored person or thing once an alarm condition has been triggered. Therefore, eventhough the operator is informed that an alarm condition is present, he is given no clue as to the direction to proceed in order to find the monitored object.
Prior to the present invention, monitoring apparatuses have not been able to monitor the specific activities of an object without significantly draining the power supply of the apparatus. Additionally, the prior art has been unable to inform the operator as to the specific activity of the monitored person which led to the alert condition or conditions. Finally, the aforementioned apparatuses have been unable to provide an efficient method for locating the monitored individual or the like once an alarm condition has surfaced.